Sergeant Thorne wrote:I was making two statements in one. 1) The Catholic church is full of weird and disturbing practices, especially from a Biblical Christian perspective, and 2) The Catholic church puts people in bondage when Jesus Christ died to make them free. The first is partly opinion (you could argue that this is not weird or disturbing), except that some of my opinions are based on Biblical teaching and a Biblical perspective, so it isn't just my opinion. The fact that odd practices like and unlike this are the domain of the Catholic church is historic. The second cannot be opinion, it can only be right or wrong. If you're wanting to relegate opposition to "opinion" when it doesn't even make rational sense, I think you should consider your motives.
The only "disturbing" thing here is your attempt to conflate the practice of obviously troubled individuals like these with official Catholic doctrines and practices. Are you really going to suggest that a few head-cases nailing themselves to crosses is in the same vein as going to Mass every week?
More broadly, I can't say I feel like getting into some dogmatic battle with you, but I think it's funny that you'd cite history without seemingly paying attention to it yourself. For instance, you are aware that, for a thousand years, Catholicism essentially
was Christianity, correct? And even after the Eastern Orthodox church broke away in 1054, their doctrines remained similar enough (to the point where we're in full communion with each other today) that it was almost status quo for another five hundred years. Catholicism is the only branch of Christianity that can claim direct apostolic succession, and the authority it holds was granted by Christ himself in no uncertain terms. I should think that someone who treats every single comma in the Bible as literal should be able to pick up on that.
